The age old story of two best friends falling in love...
... Only, one's a lab experiment with an entire Upside Down hunting her down, and the other won't leave her side, no matter how hard she tries.
steve harrington x fem oc / season 2 o...
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chapter twenty-four ruby rising
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STEVE'S CAR HURTLES DOWN the road, lines of evergreen trees snaking up to the sky on either side of the tarmac. See, he normally likes the drive home from his shift at the mall. He likes the emptiness — the mall closes an hour and a half before his shift finishes, thanks to his clean-up duties, so the road's empty of all shoppers — and he likes how his car radio can blare, and that's the only sound for miles. Just him, his radio, and the open road. He keeps on considering doing a road trip this summer, maybe, with Ruby. He's sure he can find someone to lend them a van, and he gets enough holiday to take a couple weeks off. It just depends if (a) he can afford it, and (b) if Ruby can find two weeks spare, too...
But this time, he's got these two shitheads interrupting his perfect, peaceful silence. There's Robin, who almost fought Dustin to sit shotgun, and Dustin, both talking on and on about this Russian message. He keeps on thinking about Ruby. See, he could tell them to shut up, and they wouldn't listen, but his girlfriend? They'd be scared to death. He's also worried about her, and wishes they figured out a way to leave her car at the mall overnight. Would it be too extreme for them to pierce one of her tyres, so the car had no choice to stay parked?
He drops off Dustin first. As he walks away, and he and Robin drive off, her house the next drop-off, Steve lets out a sigh. He'll finish dropping them off soon, then he can go to Ruby's.
The radio's playing some weird old song. His ears prick up, almost, when the song starts going, "Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, baby," and he wonders if he's gained powers. Ruby's always said that periods can sync up, maybe this is the same... but it's him... getting her powers...
OK, OK, he's tired, shut up.
Robin must've noticed the song, too, because she glances across at Steve, and tells him, "I'm sure she'll be fine, whatever's going on..."
"If that's you asking what's wrong—"
"It wasn't!" She pauses. "OK, it was, but I'm just confused!"
"Well, I can't tell you!" he says, annoyed. He remembers being the person out of the loop, begging Ruby to tell him what was going on with her, and he knows it sucks for Robin, but this is different. Ruby is his girlfriend, she was his best friend for years — they know everything about each other, they've been there for each other at every fork in the road. It was weird that he didn't know something about her. Robin doesn't know Ruby like that. Not to mention, he doesn't even know if they like each other...
Robin sighs. "She just seemed... upset, that's all." And Steve wants to correct her, because it wasn't that Ruby was upset, it was that she was scared. She's scared of the Mind Flayer. "I've never seen her like that."
